[Sabertooth]

Fair enough. You favor protectionism, through the use of the tax code, which of course is how protectionism is effected

You've begged the question, which is:

"Why aren't self-styled "free traders" interested in the free trade of American labor?"

How is it that free traders are not concerned about the lack of free trade in American labor, due to the anticompetitive burdens of excessive domestic taxation and regulations?

If anticompetitive burdens on foreign labor equal protectionism for American jobs, how is the corollary not also true?

If raising revenues on the fruits of foreign labor is economically destructive, why is that not also true of the raising revenue on the fruits of domestic labor?

That "revenue needs to be raised somehow" doesn't argue for a tax system that penalizes American labor at the expense of foreign labor.

[Torie]

Well tariffs discriminate against imports. Sales taxes apply equally to imported and domestic goods. Taxes on capital are not a tax on labor. Your thesis that the tax code favors imports is wrong in my view. Indeed, until recently, complex tax provisions in the US subsidized exports, until GATT told the US to cut it out.

[Torie]

Regarding regulations, they need to be taken one at a time. An overall traducing of them really doesn't move the ball.

[Ohioan]

If raising revenues on the fruits of foreign labor is economically destructive, why is that not also true of the raising revenue on the fruits of domestic labor?

An excellent point! As a lifelong believer in Free Trade, I find myself forced to make some exceptions today. First, we need to make certain that we have the means at home to sustain a possible war effort in the future--I mean a real war, with a formidable foe, not hit and run bandit fanatics, as are those with whom we are presently engaged. Second, there is a terrible social cost in this present farming out of jobs overseas. This was not possible in this form, historically, so it really is outside the human experience, and suggests all sorts of problems, not even yet addressed here.

We need a debate on just what are worthwhile personal choices, family goals and all sorts of other subjects, that usually have little role in debates on world trade. This is not just another business cycle, which can be expected to correct itself. Not where people who had to train for many years to obtain a highly skilled position, can be put out of business overnight, by companies willing to transfer information on the internet, 11,000 miles, to obtain the same service. That sort of change does not self-adjust in any manner of which we have any past experience. There are totally new factors thrown in, which might take generations, rather than months or years, to sort out.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site